Hunted

Chapter 20: Questions

I couldn't remember the last time I slept so good. There was something about being in Rykan's arms. After icing the bruise, we brushed our teeth together. It was nice in a strange way. Evan never wanted us to brush our teeth at the same time, he thought it was weird. But Rykan insisted and kept his free hand on my back the entire time. I don't know if it was just because he wanted to or because when I saw the results of Evan's hit in the mirror I started to tear up, it looked so much worse than I realized. Rykan handled it well, telling me I was still beautiful and it would heal. He'd barely stopped touching me since I arrived and I loved every moment of his affection.

He carried me to bed when we were done, he held me tightly but delicately and I fell asleep to him stroking my hair. For once, waking up was better than being asleep because I woke up to find him playing with my hair again, already awake. It wasn't a dream this time. This was for real.

"Hi," I greeted, looking up at him.

"Good morning, angel," he said, bringing his hand around to my face and running his fingers down my cheek gently. "Did you sleep all right?"

"Yes," I said, rolling onto my back and stretching out. "Did you?"

"Best sleep I've ever had," he said, tracing his finger down my arm. "How's the pain?"

"It's not as bad today," I said, bringing my hand up to my face. "I just wish it wasn't so ugly."

"It'll fade."

"I know but after how long?" I said, wrinkling my nose.

"I don't know," I frowned. "I don't know how human healing works."

"What do you mean?" I asked, turning on my side to look at him. "Human healing?"

"Werewolves heal quickly," he explained. "That mark would've been gone in less than an hour if it were mine."

"What? Seriously?" I asked, my eyes widening.

He nodded, bringing his hand up, trailing his fingers along my cheek gently. "I knew humans healed slower. I didn't know how slow," he said, frowning. "I'll ask Jasmine if there's anything else we can do."

"Okay," I said, sitting up and crossing my legs overtop each other. "We need to talk about the werewolf thing now because... I have a lot of questions. Like, a lot."

"Go ahead," he said, propping his head up under his hand, his elbow resting on the bed. His other hand traced up and down my calf, leaving my stomach a mess of butterflies.

"When you... change... into your wolf. Is it still you?" I asked, tilting my head to the side. "Do you still have control?"

"Yes," he nodded. "It's still me. A more... primal me. I'm in control, I'm just a little more... Aggressive I suppose you could say. Shorter temper. That kind of thing. But you don't need to worry, even as my wolf and angry I'd never do anything to hurt you. For all I know, you're the only one that could calm me, even in my wolf form."

"So... You can just do it whenever?" I asked. "You don't have to wait for a full moon? Do you attack people?"

He frowned and gave me a look that said he was not amused by the question. But I wasn't really kidding.

"What?" I asked innocently. "I don't know anything about this."

"It's not like a horror movie," he sighed. "I can shift whenever I'd like and no, I don't attack anyone. Unless provoked. Unless they deserve it or I need to defend myself."

"Defend yourself?" I frowned.

"There are people that get obsessive about werewolves and if they catch on our scent, they're relentless," he said, darting his eyes away. "They'd kill any of us. Even the children."